A leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970s, Chuck Close is internationally renowned for his monumentally scaled portrait paintings, based on photographs. Close likes to push the boundaries of different techniques, processes and materials, working with various collaborators to achieve his vision. His first public artwork, Subway Portraits, featured a series of 12 mosaic and tile artworks, was commissioned by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design program in 2017. This book presents Chuck Close's new series of mosaic artworks as well as related...

This book is an unprecedented documentation of the relationship between sculpture and mosaic, its birth and evolution. This book explores the different application of the concept of 'tesserae' by sculptors beginning in the 1930s, when Lucio Fontana and Mirko Basaldella first embarked upon their research on mosaic and the plastic arts. The peculiar creative process behind their creations was inspired by primitive Mesoamerican sculptures decorated with mosaics, viewed by the two artists in different times and places, and also by the growing interest in ancient Latin American art that was...